GRANDMAS HOUSE + AUSTEN POWERS + HONEST WORK – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 24.3.23
Grandmas House
All-girl punk band Grandmas House closed their eleven-date UK headline tour in Brighton with a typically loud, lively set at The Hope & Ruin on Friday, courtesy of promoters JOY. Their tour coincided with the release of their latest EP ‘Who Am I’ released earlier this month on Brace Yourself Records. (A rather fitting name for the record label they’re on, given the nature of a Grandmas House live show.)
Female, queer and unapologetic, Grandmas House are a punk band from Bristol, consisting of Yasmin Berndt (lead vocalist and guitar), Zoë Zinsmeister (bass) and Poppy Dodgson (drummer and vocals). Grandmas House formed as they “wanted a place to scream about the stuff we care about, which is why we started writing music and learning our instruments which led to us moving in together and starting the band”.
Grandmas House made their Brighton debut at last year’s Great Escape Festival at The MVT Stage on the beach, and returned to play the ‘234 Festival’ at the Green Door Store in September. The Brighton and Hove News Music Team were there and you can read our report HERE.
History lesson over, back to Friday night’s live gig at The Hope & Ruin which is located on Queen’s Road in Brighton. Dressed in their familiar black and white, Yasmin announced the start of the band’s set with a simple “Hello everyone” as the band kicked off with ‘Golden’ from their self-titled debut EP. An EP that the NME described as the “fastest, rowdiest eleven-minute listen of 2021”.
Yasmin’s raspy, provocative vocals have been likened to Siouxsie (of Siouxsie and the Banshees), Kurt Cobain and even Motorhead’s Lemmy. On several songs Yasmin’s lead vocals were echoed or responded to by Poppy on drums, even when she sang in French. More on that later.
There was no dead space between the first two songs as Zoë improvised a bassline riff before ‘Feed Me’. This, in common with most of Grandmas House’s material, was another short, loud song. By the way, all of Grandmas House’s recorded tracks are less than 3 minutes long. The following song, ‘Never Out Of Luck’ saw a swap in vocal duties with Poppy taking the lead and Yasmin backing her up. By contrast ‘No Place Like Home’ had a relatively slower, longer intro before the vocals started. It had a darker, more threatening feel to it, largely down to Zoë’s bass.
One of the features that sets Grandmas House apart from other post punk bands is the quality of basslines that Zoë produces. Zoë could be seen seemingly restlessly prowling the stage delivering her menacing bass sounds. Zoë also provided more backing vocals than I recall from the previous times I’ve seen Grandmas House.
As well as promoting their new EP, Grandmas House took the chance to showcase some new material. Yasmin announced the next song ‘From The Gods’ as a new one. ‘Screw It Up’, later in the set, was another unreleased treat. Both of which were a good addition and fitted in seamlessly alongside their existing material.
On the next song ‘How Does It Feel?’ Yasmin sung her part in French, while Poppy replied in English. Yasmin is bilingual having grown up in Belgium before moving to Bristol. ‘Desire’ followed and started with the familiar pounding drums and guitar riffs.
A sizeable mosh pit had formed by this part of Grandmas House’s set feeding off the noise, energy and fast paced sounds coming from the stage. ‘Always Happy’ showed a different side of Yasmin’s vocal, as it was delivered as spoken word (shouted word would be more accurate). It was a simple arrangement with the lyrics “I say what I want; I say what I like; I am always happy; You can’t wipe the smile off my face.” clearly reflecting the band’s ethos and attitude in their lyrics.
Yasmin explained the background of the song ‘Pasty’ which is about a pasty seller back in Bristol. Well, they are from the West-country. This time the recollection of the story had a sad note, as they’ve not seen the pasty seller around lately.
Their final song, ‘Body’ started with a great bassline from Zoë. Yasmin put down her guitar leaving Zoë on bass and Poppy on drums. During the song, she literally leaves them to sing among the crowd. She wasn’t the first person to do that at The Hope & Ruin that night.
After only a few minutes break, Yasmin asks “Shall we do one more?”. From the crowd’s enthusiasm during Grandmas House’s set, the answer was obvious. Yasmin explained it would be an old one, as they’d only got one song they hadn’t played. After a sharp “1 2 3 4” from Poppy behind the drums, Grandmas House launched into ‘Small Talk’. In keeping with the rest of the set, it was delivered in a punk style, short, sharp and played as fast as they could. It was a very impressive performance from Grandmas House, which judging by the mosh pit during the set and the reaction afterwards, went down very well with the crowd.
Grandmas House:
Yasmin Berndt – vocals, guitar
Poppy Dodgson – drums, vocals
Zoë Zinsmeister – bass
Grandmas House setlist:
‘Golden’ (from 2021 ‘Grandmas House’ EP)
‘Feed Me’ (from 2021 ‘Grandmas House’ EP)
‘Never Out Of Luck’ (from 2021 ‘Grandmas House’ EP)
‘No Place Like Home’ (a 2020 single release)
‘From The Gods’ (unreleased)
‘How Does It Feel?’ (from 2023 EP ‘Who Am I’ EP)
‘Desire’ (from 2023 EP ‘Who Am I’ EP)
‘Always Happy’ (a 2021 single release)
‘Screw It Up’ (unreleased)
‘Pasty’ (from 2021 ‘Grandmas House’ EP)
‘Girl’ (from 2021 ‘Grandmas House’ EP)
‘Devil’s Advocate’ (a 2020 single release)
‘Who Am I’ (from 2023 EP ‘Who Am I’ EP)
‘Body’ (from 2023 EP ‘Who Am I’ EP)
(encore)
‘Small Talk’ (from 2021 single release)
Honest Work
Fellow Bristol band Saloon Dion were scheduled to support Grandmas House, but were unable to make the Brighton date of the tour. Their place was taken by Honest Work.
Honest Work are a 4-piece band lead by Nic on vocals and bass, with two guitarists Tom and Curt and Finn on drums completing their line-up.
Despite being late comers to the bill, there was no slow start to Friday’s gig. Honest Work opened the gig with a lively punky number ‘What’s It Like’.
Introducing their song ‘Surprise’, Nic explained how it was a surprise for them as a last-minute replacement, and thanked Grandmas House for the chance to play. This was a slightly softer number, with guitarist Tom taking lead vocal. There was a good instrumental break at the end of the song.
Honest Work dedicated ‘Rawdog’ to the Radio 6 Music dads in the audience and told how they’d pump up that radio to 10.
‘Nothing In My Head’ was introduced as a new song. Before starting this song, Tom apologised in advance as it had only been written two weeks ago and due to travelling back from Texas and jet lag, he may forget the words. He didn’t!
Honest Work were tight musically, and provided a lively entertaining start to the evening’s proceedings. They got a very good reaction from the crowd.
Honest Work:
Nic – vocals and bass
Tom – guitar and vocals
Curt – guitar
Finn – drums
Honest Work setlist:
‘What’s It Like’
‘Little Dove’
‘Surprise’
‘Life’
‘Rawdog (Pump Up That Radio)’
‘Nothing In My Head’
‘Energy’
www.instagram.com/goodhonestwork
Austen Showers
The middle band on the bill were Austen Showers, a genre-fluid four-piece from Brighton led by the very charismatic vocalist Charlie. Described aptly as a “70s mushroom punk fantasy” Austen Showers combined several musical genres, from the 60’s and 70’s through to post-punk.
Austen Showers started their set with a 60’s sounding guitar solo and a song that combines punk and 60’s sounds. Their second song was a more contemporary rock number with a very catchy psychedelic guitar part.
Austen Showers were all about audience participation. Charlie explained the call response of “Hey Hey” on their debut single. The audience keenly shouted “Hey” back in response, when Charlie held the mic out to them.
Charlie proclaimed “Get dancing. It’s Friday, you know you want to.” before the song ‘Sunshine’ which had a funky dream pop sound. Before the following song she encouraged the audience to “Keep dancing like it’s 1979.” The audience didn’t need much encouragement to dance along to Austen Shower’s lively set.
Towards the end of the song ‘Constructive Dismissal’, Charlie first asked the audience to sit down, and then whistle. Most of the audience did join in. I admit I’m not a fan of this forced participation, as it often leads to a dead part of the set. I’m never sure if people willingly take part or feel shamed into joining in.
Hardly surprising, Charlie left the stage and joined the audience in the mosh pit for one of the later numbers in the set.
While not to my taste, I have to say that Austen Showers certainly liven up the crowd before Grandmas House took the stage. The band gave their all, even with Charlie just getting over a cold. Their set was entertaining, and the vast majority of the audience loved it.
Austen Showers:
Charlie – vocals
Robin – bass
Luca – guitar
Steph – drums
Find out more about Austen Showers HERE.
